Many products and services that are sold today are sold on the basis of “fixed quantities.” That is, the seller offers to sell certain products with the pricing for such products being based on certain “fixed quantities” that are presented to the buyer as well as on certain “price breaks” that are then based on those fixed quantities. Selling products in this fashion typically requires that the seller calculate decreasing product prices on a “per unit” basis at somewhere between three to seven different quantity levels. While this type of “quantity/price break” combination can be viewed as an incentive for encouraging the buyer to purchase more product, the reality is that this type of sales methodology has become the norm in printed sales catalogs simply because there is only so much physical space that can be allocated on a printed catalog page for the pricing information that is available for any given product.
There is, however, a fundamental unfairness (certainly as viewed by the buyer) that is created in the use of such pricing structures. By way of example, suppose that a seller of promotional items, such items bearing a business name or logo and being distributed to end users for promotional purposes, offers ball point pens for sale. Suppose also that such ball point pens are being offered to the buyer at a per unit price of 29¢ for a minimum quantity order of 500 pens. Suppose then that the next “quantity/price break” occurs at the point where the buyer would purchase 1,000 pens, in which case the price for each pen purchased above that number is reduced to a per unit price of 24¢. In this example, a first buyer that orders 900 pens will pay the same price as a second buyer that orders the minimum quantity of 500 pens. In this particular situation, the wise first buyer should realize (but may not) that it will actually pay less total cost for 1,000 pens, i.e. $240, than it would for 900 pens, i.e. $261. In this example, the first buyer is actually better off ordering 1,000 pens in any situation where it could or would need to purchase more than 827 pens. But perhaps that first buyer just doesn't need 1,000 pens, but definitely needs more than 827 pens. In short, the “quantity/price break” methodology is not fair to the buyer in some situations and may not be attractive to the buyer in other situations.
In the view of these inventors, what is needed is a method and system for variably pricing products and services that would effectively eliminate this conventional type of “quantity/price break” methodology. In this age of electronic data processing and communications, the internet provides sellers with promotional opportunities and benefits not previously made possible. This is particularly true for sellers who, up to now, have sold products and services only through catalogs. This electronic medium makes the method and system of the present invention possible. The present invention is also made possible by the use of specialized software that will calculate specific pricing structures for specific goods and in quantities that will prove to be much more flexible than current methods allow for.